In Principio August 2017

RECALLING COMMUNITY, CULTURE, ENDURING FRIENDSHIPS The late 60s and early 70s were a time of great transition for Aboriginal people across northern Australia. Missions were closing down and people were moving off cattle stations into Native Reserves established close to the towns. While there are few reported happy memories of life on other Reserves inWA, the residents of one collection of 12 tin shacks – known as the Anne St Reserve and established in the red sands on the edge of the Broome township housing up to 130 people – bucked the trend. Despite the hardship – living cheek by jowl in two-room tin shacks and with just two toilet blocks shared by all families, there was a real sense of community, culture, shared meals and enduring friendships. In this article, researchers from the Nulungu Research Institute at Notre Dame’s Broome Campus, Dr KathrynThorburn and Anna Dwyer, discuss the subject of their current focus: a social history of the Reserve which will culminate in a book documenting this important snapshot of history. N U L U N G U I N P R I N C I P I O | 1 4